, running from the High
Street to Boley Hill, and the foundations of the west wall lying along
its side. These researches revealed no signs of aisles, quasi-transepts,
or porch. If a western porch or apse ever existed, and has left any
remains, these remains must lie beneath the road, so that excavation
would be necessary to get at them. It has been conjectured that the
west, as well as the east end, terminated apsidally. There would then
have been placed, in the one apse, the high altar of St. Andrew, with
the tombs of St. Paulinus, the apostle of Northumbria, and of St.
Ythamar, the first Englishman to attain the episcopal dignity. Both of
these died as bishops of Rochester, and they were buried in its
cathedral in 644 and 655 respectively. The other apse, for this is
possibly the right meaning to assign to "porticus" in the following
quotation, would have contained the altar of St. Paul, and the tomb of
Bishop Tobias, who is recorded to have been buried "in porticu Sancti
Pauli apostoli, quam intra ecclesiam Sancti Andreae sibi ipse in locum
sepulchri fecerat." The tracing of the foundations of a straight wall at
the west end proves nothing, I think, against the existence of this
"porticus," be it porch or apse, beyond. We know that it was a later
addition by Bishop Tobias himself, and it is not to be supposed that,
when he cut away part of the old wall to unite his work to the building,
he would have taken the trouble to dig beneath the surface and remove
the foundations too. It is to be hoped that at some time in the future
all the remains of the old Saxon church, under the burial ground and
under the road, will be uncovered, and its complete plan thus, beyond
all cavil, ascertained.

[1] A full account by the Rev. G. M. Livett in Archaeologia Cantiana,
xviii.

Troublous times fell on the church very soon after its erection, and, as
Lambarde says: "No marvaile is it, if the glory of the place were not at
any time very great, since on the one side the abilitie of the Bishops
and the Chanons (inclined to advaunce it) was but meane, and on the
other side the calamitie of fire and sworde (bent to destroy it) was in
manner continuall." Even here in Kent a reaction against the new creed
followed the death of Ethelbert, and his successor Eadbald relapsed into
idolatry. Bishop Justus himself fled to Gaul in 617, and remained there
a year before he was recalled by the king, but there were sadder times
still to come. A